Strangest Browser Searches

August 28, 2017

I was tagged by DJ Edwardson to participate in this fun challenge created by Madeline @ Short and Snappy. I did something like it a while back talking about the various things I’ve researched for my writing, but I’ve done more writing since then, and thought it would be fun to participate in the tag!

The Rules:

Access your browser history

Pick at least 5 of your strangest searches you’ve had to look up as a writer

List them below with an explanation as to why you had to look them up

Tag 2-5 other bloggers

I honestly don’t think that my browser searches are all that strange. Maybe if I was a murder-mystery author. However, it could be entertaining to see what people would assume my life was like if they didn’t know I was an author, and all they had to go on were my browser searches. Because in between normal things such as “children’s growth percentile” and “(insert name of song) + lyrics” and searches for various kid’s arts and crafts and science/school related projects… the following are scattered:

Middle ages farewell

I was trying to come up with a more archaic term or way of saying “goodbye”

poached eggs medieval times

I wanted to know if poached eggs were something that could appear amongst other food in a medieval setting

Swedish surnames

I have a slightly unhealthy obsession with finding the PERFECT names for characters, and as I have decided that each region in my new series corresponds with a specific set of origins for names and culture… I’ve spent a lot of time searching for names with my latest WIP

victorian era haircut for men

Because I wanted to describe a character’s hair… and make it realistic to the era I am attempting to capture a feel of… but also using my imagination, because… fantasy realm.

how to get a sailboat to go fast

This one seems self-explanatory. One of my beta readers for Minstrel’s Call suggested I brush up on my ship-terminology and sprinkle it in to give the book a more realistic feel.

sharpening a sword without sandpaper

A character had to sharpen his sword and I needed to know what the order of operations would be in a time period before sandpaper was invented

what does a rock slide sound like?

Obviously… a rock slide occurs in the story. I needed to describe it.

rolling while holding a sword

My poor characters really need to do a lot of moving and running and rolling… I wanted to know if this was even feasible without losing their weapons.

how does one secure a climbing rope into rock

I need to do more rock climbing.

inosculation oak tree

Yeah… that’s probably the weirdest one. And the reasons are a bit spoilery… so… yeah.

how to rescue someone buried in an avalanche

Poor characters! They have no idea what’s about to hit them.

what causes an avalanche?

Curse you, all cinematic history! You’ve lied to me for YEARS! But now I know, and can write all about realistic avalanches that nobody will believe because the movies have made us believe that avalanches are caused by loud, sudden sounds. sigh….

So… if you didn’t know I was a writer… what conclusions would you come to based on my browser history?

Most of my bizarre ones are based on pure “me” rather than my writing. Like my books don’t require me to know the national average deaths cause by cows, but it helped me win a playful argument I was having with a family member. Needing to know the MTBI sorting for Howl Jenkins from Howl’s Moving Castle … also just me. How to pronounce Pepto Bismal, also another family argument.
The first writer related one is me verifying which one is a stalagmite and which is a stalactite. Then “when was the tape measure invented” … is it heard tale or heard tell … I often use Google as a spell check when I can remember a word’s spelling because if you google the incorrect version it suggests the right one most of the time.

Haha! The national average deaths caused by cows! You should definitely put that in a book… even if you weren’t meaning to.

I have a lot of thesaurus and dictionary searches as well. I only picked the ones that were most interesting… the vast majority of them are fairly mundane. Or they result from a moment of reminenting… where I have a phrase or word on the tip of my brain but can’t quite grasp hold of it, so I’ll have searches like, “What’s the saying for when someone gets surprised and doesn’t like it” and Google comes back with the ever helpful “here are ways of saying that you are not easily surprised.” Um… thanks, Google.

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About the Author

Jenelle Leanne Schmidt first fell in love with stories through her father’s voice reading aloud to her before bed each night. A dreamer and relentless opener of doors in hopes of someday finding a passage to Narnia, it was only natural that she soon began making up fantastical realms of her own. The award-winning author has published four books in The Minstrel’s Song series as well as a couple of short stories. She resides in the wintry tundra of Wisconsin with her husband and their four adorable children who are all named after characters in The Lord of the Rings.